This extensive revision of a 1975 publication, "Guidelines for the Evaluation of Training Courses, Workshops, and Seminars in Scientific and Technical Information and Documentation," suggests possible approaches to the evaluation of the type of training sessions that might be organized or promoted by Unesco. Guidelines relate to what…

This paper describes how a naturalistic inquirer can demonstrate rigor, or trustworthiness, and how an auditor might assess it. Looking at both inquiry products and processes, Part 1 of this paper describes how an audit may assess whether an inquiry's findings and conclusions are grounded in the raw data, and whether appropriate conventions were…

This paper examines the concepts of program monitoring and program evaluation in the literature, and offers working definitions based on two dimensions of measurement: focus (what questions are addressed) and timing (how often the measures are taken). Focus can be on inputs to the program or outcomes from it; timing can be one-shot or continuous.…

The authors argue that most current modes of formative and summative teacher evaluation are fundamentally unproductive. Unproductiveness stems from focusing upon efficiency rather than effectiveness, post rather than future performance, individual rather than organizational performance, and authoritarian rather than collegial relationships.…

This guide is intended to assist states and service delivery areas (SDAs) in addressing the new oversight responsibilities and opportunities stipulated by the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). The first section examines the objectives and outcomes of the project to develop this and the other eight JTPA evaluation guides in the series. A listing…

The Research, Planning and Development Office of Milwaukee Area Technical College has developed a program evaluation procedure that quantitatively assesses 13 variables considered to be important indicators of program viability. These variables are used in three separate stages of the program evaluation: program monitoring, in-depth program…

The Visiting Team Guidelines for Evaluation of Pennsylvania School Districts was prepared as a companion document for the three Pennsylvania Educational Needs Assessment Self-Study Guides for elementary schools, middle/junior high schools, and secondary schools. The purpose of these guidelines is to assist personnel of the school district and…

Reports on a study of 5,000 student evaluations of teachers (SETs) and their relationship to the final grades the students received in introductory economics classes. Finds that there is little relationship between the rating of instructors and the grades received by students in their classes. Recommends that colleges and universities explore…

The evaluation team of the Lincoln Public Schools (Nebraska) used the multi-attribution utility technology (MAUT) approach to prioritize potential evaluation projects. The priorities were used to allocate resources to the district's most important projects, and to eliminate or scale down less important projects. The problem was caused initially…

In August 2008, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) brought together approximately 60 mathematics education researchers and practitioners for a 4-day working conference. During this working conference, the participants analyzed over 350 mathematics education practitioner-generated questions in seven areas: assessment,…

This paper reports on several generic evaluation methods used by the evaluation office of the Curriculum Research and Development Group of the University of Hawaii (EO-CRDG). Scrivens's (generic) checklist approach was taken one step further by developing generic data collection instruments to be used with any evaluation method: (1) a formative…

A model for evaluating agricultural teacher education programs was developed and tested. The quality of the program was indicated by members of the profession, who were asked to list, in rank order, the top 10 college programs and to give reasons for their rankings. Program rankings were also compared with the faculty rank of the respondents,…

As more public money is spent on educational reform, the issue of school accountability arises more often. California high schools have traditionally participated in an external validation process to gain accreditation from the regional commission, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). Schools that receive compensatory funding…

This investigation employed an in-basket simulation to assess the effect of provisional analysis on the use of evaluation data by program administrators in making program decisions. Sixty-five volunteers from graduate education courses and 52 volunteers from undergraduate educational psychology classes at Western Kentucky University were randomly…

When studying different types of returns to education, educational reforms are commonly used in the economics literature as a source of exogenous variation in education. The Swedish compulsory school reform is one example; the reform extended compulsory education throughout the country, in different municipalities at different points in time. Such…